A delivery system is known which includes a server device and a client device configured to be communicable with each other. The server device is configured to be able to transmit, to the client device, content data in which a piece of content is encoded at an arbitrary one of a plurality of different bit rates.
While receiving the content data transmitted by the server device, the client device stores the received data of the content data in a storage device and reproduces the content based on the stored data.
One of this type of delivery systems is described in Patent Document 1. The delivery system changes the bit rate of content data transmitted by a server device, based on a portion of data stored in the storage device of a client device that has not been reproduced, such that the remaining reproduction time during which content can be reproduced is approximated to a target value.
This makes it possible to maintain the remaining reproduction time in an appropriate range. Therefore, the content reproduction by the client device can be prevented from being interrupted by the remaining reproduction time becoming too short. Further, the data amount stored in the storage device of the client device can be prevented from being increased excessively by the remaining reproduction time becoming too long.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-172830